Flying Free

My Victory over Fear to Become the First Latina Pilot on the US Aerobatic Team

by Cecilia Aragon

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.

Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org

*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.

Pub Date Sep 22 2020 | Archive Date Dec 16 2020

Blackstone Publishing

Biographies & Memoirs | Science

Talking about this book? Use #FlyingFree #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!

Description

A woman’s exhilarating journey from shy, fearful daughter of immigrants to champion pilot for the US Aerobatic Team

The daughter of a Chilean father and a Filipina mother, Cecilia Rodriguez Aragon grew up as a shy, timid child in a small midwestern town during the 1960s. Targeted by school bullies and dismissed by many of her teachers, she worried that people would find out the truth: that she was INTF. Incompetent. Nerd. Terrified. Failure. This feeling stayed with her well into her twenties when she was told that “girls can’t do science” or “women just don’t know how to handle machines.”

Yet in the span of just six years, Cecilia became the first Latina pilot to secure a place on the United States Unlimited Aerobatic Team and earn the right to represent her country at the Olympics of aviation, the World Aerobatic Championships. How did she do it?

Using mathematical techniques to overcome her fear, Cecilia performed at air shows in front of millions of people. She jumped out of airplanes and taught others how to fly. She learned how to fund-raise and earn money to compete at the world level. She worked as a test pilot and contributed to the design of experimental airplanes, crafting curves of metal and fabric that shaped air to lift inanimate objects high above the earth. And best of all, she surprised everyone by overcoming the prejudices people held about her because of her race and her gender.

Flying Free is the story of how Cecilia Aragon broke free from expectations and rose above her own limits by combining math and logic with her passion for flying in unexpected ways. You don’t have to be a math whiz or a science geek to learn from her story. You just have to want to soar.

A woman’s exhilarating journey from shy, fearful daughter of immigrants to champion pilot for the US Aerobatic Team

The daughter of a Chilean father and a Filipina mother, Cecilia Rodriguez Aragon...

A Note From the Publisher

Cecilia Aragon is an author, air-show pilot, and the first Latina full professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. She coauthored Writers in the Secret Garden, has worked with Nobel Prize winners, taught astronauts to fly, and created musical simulations of the universe with rock stars. Her major awards for research, and a stint at NASA designing software for Mars missions, led President Obama to call her “one of the top scientists and engineers in the country.”

Cecilia Aragon is an author, air-show pilot, and the first Latina full professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. She coauthored Writers in the Secret Garden...

Read More Read More

A Note From the Publisher

Cecilia Aragon is an author, air-show pilot, and the first Latina full professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. She coauthored Writers in the Secret Garden, has worked with Nobel Prize winners, taught astronauts to fly, and created musical simulations of the universe with rock stars. Her major awards for research, and a stint at NASA designing software for Mars missions, led President Obama to call her “one of the top scientists and engineers in the country.”

Advance Praise

“Cecilia Aragon’s riveting journey (and love of math!) led her from bullied Latina schoolgirl to aerobatic superstar, demonstrating not only courage to perform upside-down airplane stunts, but courage of the heart to overcome her fears and the low expectations of those around her. I hope her story reaches girls around the world, to show them how rising above hateful stereotypes truly is possible for anyone. She’s an inspiration, and I’m proud to have included her in my book Hot X: Algebra Exposed!”

-Danica McKellar, actress (The Wonder Years, Hallmark movies) and New York Times bestselling author of McKellar Math books

“Flying Free is a memoir that will absolutely transport you with its spellbinding, page-turning story, a story that insists your own dreams are achievable if you--like Cecilia Aragon--break them down into small steps and use logic to face down your fears. Flying Free offers us an adventure of a lifetime and a plucky narrator who just keeps picking up each time she gets knocked down. Cecilia Aragon is a master storyteller who reminds us that a bigger life is possible for each of us. Read this book!”

—Theo Pauline Nestor, author of Writing Is My Drink

“Flying Free is no fairy tale. Cecilia Aragon has carved out a big life for herself with persistence, determination, hard work, and intention while continually quashing a deeply instilled message to stay small, stay safe, stay in the passenger seat. The vivid details of her flights allowed me to fly vicariously through her. I could feel the exhilaration of a stall or spin or loop, the pressure of the g-forces alternating with weightlessness, the blood rushing to my head as I hung upside down, the smell of sage or pine rushing up at me. Cecilia’s story shows us how empowering and rewarding it is to be in the pilot’s seat, and that we can do it, not fearlessly, but in spite of our fear, flight by flight.”

-Jan Redford, author of End of the Rope: Mountains, Marriage, and Motherhood

“Cecilia Aragon’s riveting journey (and love of math!) led her from bullied Latina schoolgirl to aerobatic superstar, demonstrating not only courage to perform upside-down airplane stunts, but...